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Episode 89: Taking Non-Traditional Paths with Myles Biggs

Welcome to The Career Clarity Show, where we help you find a lucrative, soulful, and joyful career path for you!

Today we are talking about all the different pathways that one can take towards feeling like you got a more fulfilling, satisfying, lucrative, soulful, and joyful career in front of you. Even if it doesn’t look the way that somebody else’s career might look.

Myles Biggs, Podcaster and Marketer, is here to talk all about letting go of other people’s expectations and thinking about what matters most to you. Myles shares his story of being unafraid to try some non traditional routes and brings a motivational fire that can end up propelling you when you’ve got an idea that can lead to unfold in your life. 

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Transcript:

Lisa Lewis Miller  0:04  

Welcome to the Career Clarity Show. If you want to create a career path you’ll love, you’re in the right place. I’m Lisa Lewis Miller, career change coach, published author and your host, and each week, we’ll bring you personal transformation stories, advice and insights from experts about how you can find a more fulfilling, soulful and joyful career.

Lisa Lewis Miller  0:32  

Welcome to the Career Clarity Show everybody. It’s Lisa Miller. And on today’s episode, we are talking about all the different pathways that one can take towards feeling like you got a more fulfilling, satisfying, lucrative, soulful, and joyful career in front of you. Even if it doesn’t look the way that somebody else’s career might look. today’s conversation is going to be all about letting go of other people’s expectations, thinking about what matters most to you. Being unafraid to try some non traditional routes, maybe it includes side hustling, maybe it includes making a pivot within your organization. And we’re going to talk about the kind of motivational fire that can end up propelling you when you’ve got an idea that feels inspiring, that feels meaningful, it feels juicy, it feels life giving, and what that can lead to unfold in your life. So if you are the sort of person who’s looking for a little bit more spark and inspiration and joy and juiciness in your life, this episode will be for you. If you’re curious about what it looks like to have a really successful side hustle a side gig, you’re gonna love today’s episode. And if you’re curious about how individuals make different decisions along the pathway of their career choices, that lead to feeling like you’re really creating success on your own terms, you’re definitely not going to be able to miss today’s episode. Today’s guest is Myles Biggs. Myles Biggs is an author TEDx speaker podcaster and marketer. His first podcast relish the journey was named number five on a list of the Top 15 podcasts of 2020 by New York weekly. His TEDx talk and book both titled unseen work were published in October 2020 have been gaining in popularity. Through all his content creation, Myles loves helping others uncover their talents and share them with the world. When he’s not creating content, you can find him consuming copious amounts of coffee, exploring the outdoors and making memories with his family, to which there is a brand new edition that we’ll have to celebrate with him. Myles, welcome to the Career Clarity Show. Thanks. Yeah,

Myles Biggs  2:45  

Thanks for having me. And yes, the caffeine has gotten even more, we’ve got the new baby in the house. I am thankful for my espresso machine every single day.

Lisa Lewis Miller  2:55  

Mad an espresso machine is one of those things that feels so luxurious and so indulgent. And I feel like I don’t drink coffee enough to justify having one even though I do love espresso, I’m more of a tea person. But I am so curious if this is a new addition to go with your new addition in your family, or if you’ve been a longtime espresso machine user.

Myles Biggs  3:17  

So not a long time. I got it in March of 2020. Baby came in December of 2020. But yeah, it’s to me, I went back and forth. But then you add up every time you go to Starbucks, and what you pay for a single cup of coffee, after a couple years is sort of pays for itself if you can cut that out and used to eat yourself. So that’s how I just defined it out east. Fair, fair.

Lisa Lewis Miller  3:39  

I love that. Well, miles to dive on into your story for today, you’re one of the things that I have been really loving talking to guests about is this question of making decisions differently across the course of your career and your life. Because one of the big things that separates people who feel like they are defining success on their own terms and enjoying their work is that they’ve oftentimes had to think about things differently and then make decisions differently from how others might looking externally at their situation. So I’m curious if you can paint the picture of that for our listeners about what some of the most meaningful decisions have been that you’ve made over the course of your career and how those have changed the trajectory you’re on. Sure. 

Myles Biggs  4:28  

Yeah, I think the way you phrase that question is very telling because a lot of the times we’re navigating success based on somebody else’s definition and even arrive at you know moment like I’m sure shortly I think it starts with you first have to figure out what is success actually mean for you. When you strip away expectations from other people or you know what’s gotten you to the point you are currently what’s next what’s gonna make you happy at the end of the day, it’s it’s something I feel like again, talk about luxury like it feels like a luxury place to be in. Because we can let external factors like bills and babies and all these other things make us feel like we have to do certain things, even if we don’t love them. Right, so interesting. So anyway, I found myself in that, a crossroads like that, right? Where I was successful by everybody else’s definition and a previous definition that I had for myself. But I wasn’t happy, I got into the top of the quote, unquote, corporate ladder, looked around and was like, how did I get here? I don’t know. Like, where I am, like, where do I go from here and all those questions of just feeling stuck, feeling like you’re drowning in your own life, which isn’t fun. And so did all that soul searching, and really try to figure out the source of my unhappiness in general. And that’s what helped me figure out what I needed to change in order to find happiness again. So that’s when I made the decision to change careers completely, I had been the general manager of a very large housing company. You know, it was a multi million dollar operation, hundreds of employees, I was at the top of the corporate ladder, the only other pathway for me would be to own that company one day. And I was at that point in my life when I was 27. I was thinking to myself, I have to do this, or 40 more years, like I just couldn’t imagine it at all. So I just started taking inventory then about what did make me happy. What did I like to do what got me excited, because at that time, I was waking up in Michigan, dreading going to work every day. And that’s no, that’s not fun. A lot of people never make the change. When they feel that way. They just feel like odds work, it’s supposed to suck. We’re supposed to hate it. Nobody likes where we make all these excuses. But you can actually like what you do, and get paid for it, contrary to some popular beliefs. And so, at the time, I had my podcast wrote the journey, which is more marketing, inclined, digital marketing, content creation. And that’s where I started my career was in marketing. So I was just realizing that I didn’t have to relegate that to the wee hours of the evening, after I put in a full day of doing something I didn’t like that there’s got to be a way for me to find something that, you know, makes use of this skill all the time.

Lisa Lewis Miller  7:17  

Well, let me jump in and ask because I feel like there’s so many good pieces of that to even pull apart. So what prompted you to start the podcast in the first place?

Myles Biggs  7:30  

So I was listening to them, like crazy, weird, weird stage in my life where we, I sold a house with my wife, and we were building a new house. And anybody who’s ever built a house knows and never, never ever goes to the timeline you think of right, so we sold our house before the new house was done being built, we found ourselves in a short term, apartment rental. And we didn’t get TV or internet, because we’re only supposed to be there for one to three months and not going to get any annual contract. All the cancellation fees, right. So we’re surrounded by boxes of stuff, and no TV, no internet, and I ended up just listening to podcasts as my main source of entertainment. And I’ll just go through podcasts and podcasts. And just feeling after a while, like they were all sort of the same. But once I was listening to, but also like, if that person can do it, why can’t I do it? It’s the kind of conversation I was having with myself. And so I just, you know, was literally at a bar as funny as it sounds. I didn’t have a napkin, but I had my phone out. And you know, it was through the napkin brainstorming on my phone of name ideas, who would I talk to? What would I talk about? And after I had a guest list of people already knew my life like 30 deep, I was like, Okay, I have something here that I can do. And you know, around it was around the time of Christmas. So I just asked for, you know, some simple podcast gear for Christmas when people are asking me for gift ideas, and then started the show, and then just haven’t stopped. It’s been a lot of fun and real estate journey is that over 200 episodes now.

Lisa Lewis Miller  9:01  

So when you first started the podcast, did you know or did you have any inclination that it might be the kind of transformational force in your life? It sounds like it has ended up being?

Myles Biggs  9:12  

Oh, absolutely not. No, it started with me just interviewing. Like literally my mom and my dad, my sisters, my college roommate and random people on my phone, I would just call and ask if I could record the phone conversation. It was always just gonna be a hobby, you know, something for fun. And I never really had any big expectations for it. wasn’t trying to make it like my job or pay the bills, right? So it was always just a fun thing. But then as I’m sure you can relate to you talk to one person and they say you should talk to this person. They say you should talk to this person and all of a sudden I found myself talking to people I’d never met before. And then you know, getting the confidence in myself as an interviewer to then not just depend on referrals, but go ask people that I really wanted to talk to you that I found interested interesting authors and people. I look up to Sending out cold messages on Instagram or LinkedIn or find their email address and just pitching myself to get them on the show, finding success in that, to the point where I’ve talked to chop champions, people have been on Shark Tank, best selling author, like crazy things I’d never thought would would have happened often the little whim of an idea while I was in an apartment, without TV or internet, so I had no idea. But I’m so thankful, I’ve gotten so much from a personal professional development standpoint, out of creating my own content versus consuming other people’s content, just that act of First Person experience versus listening in on somebody else’s conversation has been huge.

Lisa Lewis Miller  10:39  

I love that. And I love that when you started it, there was no pressure on it, it was purely for the enjoyment purely because you’re bored because you didn’t have an internet and you needed to do to fill the time and to feel connected to people. And I mean, sort of spoiler alert for people listening, you don’t work in housing anymore like this. This this podcast sounds like it had an accidentally transformational effect in your life in your career and your sense of what was possible.

Myles Biggs  11:10  

So when when did that start to kick in, when did this go from being just this fun thing that I’m doing to actually creating opportunity is about about a year into it, or so where I’ve been doing it for a year, and just really loving it more and more having really great conversations with some high caliber people. And in speaking with people hearing how much they absolutely loved, what they were doing in their career is a personalized, real, and I go to work the next day, realize how much I did not love what I was doing. Right? I didn’t have that same fire that this person I just talked to the night beforehand about their job, really, you know, created this dichotomy in my life, I had the stuff I did at night that I love talking to people who love what they did, and then have to wake up and do this thing that more and more I realized I didn’t want to do at all. And so I started looking for positions that could put my marketing and business operation skills to work, but also leverage this thing I’ve been learning and teaching myself outside of work, you know, basically building up a small media company and the podcasting skill at that point, I started the podcast at the end of 2017, beginning of 2018. So I think I was right before the big podcast bubble where everybody was talking about it. And so I was I was in the game when everybody was trying to get in the game then which is helpful. And then so I just started applying to marketing companies, and I landed at a marketing agency. And in the interview, what we talked about the most was podcasting, and my ideas for podcasts for their company, how we can resell it as a service line to their customers, all sorts of things. And it just made me laugh because I had the full resume of experience that all these things and we ended up talking about this hobby I did at night in my attic, you know, but Atlanta me the job. And we said, we started a podcast with a marketing agency. And we’ve got a podcast that we’re producing for other clients. And I was able to follow through on what I said I do in the interview. And all from like, he said that, that whim in that apartment one day, here we are at about three years later, and it’s pretty cool ride.

Lisa Lewis Miller  13:11  

That is a very cool ride. And miles. You know, it’s funny is that a lot of people when they’re thinking about making a pivot making a transition, feel like having permission to enjoy the journey, as it were to enjoy the ride to lean into things that are interesting or Spark curiosity or just give themselves permission to try something that doesn’t have an immediate return on investment calculation in their brains. That that feels really frivolous, or feels unprofessional or immature or whatever. And yet, when you give yourself permission to just enjoy the journey, to just have fun in your day to day life to lean into the things that speak to you and your interests. It almost always opens up opportunities to have more fun in your work, and just have more fun in your life writ large.

Myles Biggs  14:07  

Yeah. No, I say to people all the time people say something like that. Like, why are things like that, or when I first started, people were concerned I was going to quit my job and try to make money podcasting. And they were like, supporting me, but not really supported me it was interesting. But what I always say to people is you know, what’s more frivolous? binge watching your entire season of a Netflix show, or interviewing, you know, successful business people and a podcast and putting it out there. Right? It’s, we make no excuses or justifications for one. And then we have to try to explain away the other. You know, I think it’s just interesting how people frame things. It’s like acceptable to dissolve into your couch for hours at a time. But then you feel like you have to justify putting yourself out there, when really we should focus more on flipping that, you know.

Lisa Lewis Miller  14:54  

Yeah, well, and I think what you’re bringing up to is that there’s just as much a A psychological game that happens about navigating our career decisions and wanting to find something that feels more life giving. As well as an action based game that happens, because I, you know, the decision to just pick up your phone and record an episode, as opposed to watch the next episode of whatever, on Netflix isn’t inherently a difficult action to do or a difficult decision to make in a vacuum. But when you layer on the story is about what we tell ourselves and the limitations and the wonders and the worries. And this feels Okay, or I need this for coping or for numbing out. But this feels like it’s too scary or like it’s a psychological threat to my identity, it can be so easy to get wrapped around the axle and end up in analysis, paralysis, and just become immobilized when, when what you’re wanting most is to take any action that’ll help you to get unstuck and move towards something that feels more life giving

Myles Biggs  16:00  

Yeah, I totally agree. And I’ve learned that, you know, those things that scare me are the things I shouldn’t be doing. There’s a reason like, going into, like, the psychological and the actual brains are physiology, you know, we are descendants of the people that when they saw a tiger in the bushes, they ran the other way, right. So they survived, and it’s passed down through our DNA is where our brain is meant to keep us alive and self preservation. So if anything seems uncertain, or scary, it’s our primal instinct to protect ourselves. You know, you’re not gonna get eaten by a saber toothed Tiger if you create a podcast, but your brain always makes it feel that way. Because they’re not quite sure what’s around the other, the other band wrapped around the corner. But I’ve just learned that to lean into those things, and take that action, and nothing will like totally crush fear, better than action. And you just have to do it over and over again and do it in small pieces. I think a lot of people fall flat because they try to go from zero to you know, top five podcasts to 2020, right in three episodes. But it took me everybody listening almost 200 episodes in three years to ever make it on a list like that. You don’t do it for the list like that you do it for something else. And if you keep doing it, eventually, those things happen. So back to what you said, I think one of the reasons I’ve able to do, what I’ve done is that I haven’t put pressure on it to be anything other than something that I find joy with, that I can learn a new skill within that apply to something else, haven’t tried to force it to be something that then sort of crushes the creativity for me. 

Lisa Lewis Miller  17:36  

Yeah, I love that you’re highlighting that you didn’t have to try to force it to be something else, that all the people who were afraid that you were going to try that to, you know, go down in flames, leaving your job and then immediately trying to make a living as a full time paid podcaster. Like, they didn’t need to worry, because it was never your intent to burn bridges behind you. It was just to be playful, and to be exploratory and to have cool conversations with cool people.

Myles Biggs  18:03  

So people go for it. I play golf on Saturdays, I record a podcast, you know, it’s a hobby, however you want to look at it. That’s what it is. It’s a hobby. And you can pay to play golf or now I do make money, doing podcasts and other things associated with it. So I get paid down my hobby versus paying to partake in a hobby.

Lisa Lewis Miller  18:22  

Totally. Well, let’s talk a little bit about that. That point where you were able to make the career move, because you made it’s so easy. It’s so simple. I just decided I was this content creator that I applied for these marketing places. And we talked a bunch about podcasts that I got hired, and I’ve totally, you know, revamped their business model. But bring us actually into the decision making process around that. Did it become a super clear of, Oh, I should absolutely be doing digital marketing? Or were there wonders and worries and false starts and trials along the way?

Myles Biggs  18:56  

Oh, it was absolutely terrifying. When I left that company, us the only place I’d ever worked. I started there as an intern in college and was there for over 10 years. And so it was literally all I knew for a professional setting. And I had seen success there. So there’s a lot of that self talk of, you know, holy crap, I don’t know anything else. Is it going to be worse? If I leave? Can I replicate the success I had here? If I leave like all those things, just the unknown is terrifying. So it was not easy. I went back and forth a couple times. And ultimately, what did it for me like what made it easy for me to make the change was I battled back and forth with it for about a year. But I started having pretty bad panic attacks. And I didn’t know that they were panic attacks without I was having you know, bouts of anxiety. Because I’d never heard that definition before. I had never, you know, I didn’t know. And a lot of people will talk about this type of thing, right? So I didn’t have a benchmark against it. But as I started to talk about what I was feeling And, and put words around it and talk to people in the podcast about it. But then also talk to medical professionals about it. When they were like, oh, you’re having a panic attack, like, they let’s talk about your What do you do for work? Are you stressed? And they’re asking those questions I’m like, Yeah, like, seems like your, your job might be triggering this. And I had to go on medicine for anxiety to keep my anxiety at bay. And then that’s when I was like, What the hell am I doing? I am at the time, I think I was I was 29. I was like, I’m 29 I have to take medicine to go to work every day like this is nuts. And that to me that just when the switch flipped, I was like, Okay, I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to be on hold forever to, to show up in one half my life and see like, Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, like putting on this character in this front. When I go to work, and then doing what I like to do at night with my family. It’s like, I have to find something that lets me be me and figure that out. And so that’s what ultimately made me be like, Alright, that’s enough. I’ve gave myself a deadline, we’ll be out of this job than any job by this date. And just, you know, sort of burn the boats, as they say, I didn’t give myself an option, told everybody I knew my family, my wife and said, I’m leaving. Don’t let me say I’m not, you know, and just built up that support system. So that I was thinking more about the people, I’d have to go to and say, Sorry, guys, I know I said I was going to do this, but I’m not now in deal with them sort of shaming me. Because I said I was going to do it. Now I did it, you know. And so by creating that system around you and made it so that there was no way to go back and had to go forward, and then ultimately took the leap. And that was about a year and a half ago. Now, I started a new job in August of 2019. So it’s been, it’s been great. So much less stress in my life. It’s not like work isn’t hard. But the work I do is way more aligned with my personality. And what I love to do that, it doesn’t always feel like work, it’s fun for me, I get to do what I like to do with people like to work with. And that’s the way it should be.

Lisa Lewis Miller  22:02  

And love that. And I hope everybody listening is seeing some inspiration and some motivation in those pieces of your story, I want to back up and highlight two things that you shared there. One I love that you knew yourself and your motivations well enough to create a like a shaming system is sort of like a strong way to put it but a system of accountability, where you are going to hold your own feet to the fire. And for anybody who’s listening to this, who’s trying to figure out what would help them to hold their own feet to the fire. If you go back and listen to our episode of the podcast with Kelly shields, where we talk about Gretchen Rubin, and we have a whole like fangirl moment about her four tendencies. And the internal pressures versus external pressure as part of figuring out what you respond best to, you might be just like miles and respond really well to creating some sort of social connections and social accountability and not wanting to let other people down and using that as like the last little push and nudge that you need to get something done. So I love that you know yourself well enough to do that. I also want to highlight the the I so appreciate your willingness to be real and be vulnerable about mental health and getting support with that, because I think that, that there’s there’s so much stigma around getting help getting support, taking medication. And I know personally from my experience taking mental health medication, that being able to get that sort of additional support, and that additional resourcing oftentimes allows for you to almost like come up for air, and to come up out of the water and to be able to gain a perspective on what has been happening in your life. So that you feel like you’re not in survival mode. 24 seven, it’s so hard to see what’s happening to you and why when you’re in it. And you can’t come up for air.

Myles Biggs  24:01  

And that’s a great way to put it because it really once I had the meds kind of kicked in. It almost made me feel like I could like disconnect from my life and make an objective choice. I wasn’t so overcome with my emotions, that I couldn’t process things clearly. Now I’m off of them now been offered it for bouts, like eight months. But you start to realize like, Okay, this feels crazy. I feel different. You realize how bad you did feel. But then I started to look at my life and like, okay, I swam competitively all through college. So I used to work out like eight times a week when I graduated from college, I ran half marathons that I looked at my life, like the past two years, and I hadn’t exercised at all. And I was eating horribly. And I was trying to like numb the pain by drinking beer dinner every night. And you start to like realize, in hindsight, all the dominoes that fell that brought me to this place. And it allowed me to draw a line in the sand where I say, Okay, let’s look at it objectively come up for air, like you said, I’m gonna change this and change this, then change this And then eventually, you know, I’ve got the new job reduce that stress, I haven’t drank for a year and a half. I exercise every day again, and all of a sudden on me, like, this is great, I found my family again. And it sucks that I lost it, but I’m happy I was able to refund it, I’ll turn 31 in March. So I still have my whole life ahead of me, you know, and, but so many people don’t, right. And that’s why I kinda, that’s why I have no problem talking about it. Because a lot of people, I think, feel like, oh, if I go on anxiety meds or no depressants, whatever it is, you have to go on that you have to do it forever. And you don’t, I think it could be an excuse for a lot of people where you can lean on that as a crutch. But for me, it allowed me to, you know, get the distance from my emotions located objectively and then fix the things that brought me to that point in the first place. So I could not take it anymore.

Lisa Lewis Miller  25:49  

Totally well. And let me jump into sort of with the the mental health asterisk caveat here of that, it’s also fine, if you are on mental health medication for the long term for forever, because you deserve to feel good in your life. And you deserve to take the actions that it takes to make that happen, be that changing your job, be that being on medication, be that working out again. And if you need some help, and some support to make that happen, because you feel like you are running on empty, and you’re not a resource to make that happen. You should be super, super proud of yourself for even thinking about getting some additional support. And for every single baby step and action that you take to actually make that happen. Because it can be so difficult when you’re in like the lowest of low points. 

Myles Biggs  26:40  

Absolutely. Yeah, everybody’s different, right. And ultimately, it’s a chemical imbalance. And so you got to fix the chemical imbalance one way it can be medicine, or you can figure it takes it someplace else. But yeah, there’s nothing wrong with it. The only thing wrong is not talking about and I think so there’s everybody has a different story and a different outlook. But that’s what’s great. That’s what starts the conversation. And there needs to be more of that.

Lisa Lewis Miller  27:02  

Yeah, I love that. Well, tell me a little bit about how the job search process went for you once you had made this commitment and all these accountability promises to everybody. And you’d started thinking about transitioning into this digital marketing world. Because I imagine, I know for a lot of people, there’s a big competence challenge that comes up when they’re thinking about applying for jobs in a brand new space, or a space that they have never really explored professionally before. Can I even do this? How do I position myself on paper? So anybody’s gonna take me seriously? You know, based on my past experience, and what a huge proportion of my resume that takes up? How am I even gonna get looked at and get the opportunity to interview and then tell my story. So what did you wrestle with in that part of the process?

Myles Biggs  27:50  

I didn’t, I didn’t wrestle with any of it really, as arrogant as that sounds, I just started working the steps, right? Like I had to read, like, I knew I had to do all of those things I felt at the resume, you’ve got to tell your story. But because I’ve been doing the podcast, I became very good at telling stories. And also, because of the podcast, I had a huge network of people who already knew a bit of my story and already knew me. And so now I can reach out and say, Hey, I know I interviewed on the podcast four months ago, but I’m looking for a new job, here’s my resume. Do you know anybody you know, and you just start putting it out there and work in a network. And so I did that with people I interviewed on the podcast, friends and family. And with vendors, this is probably the weirdest like touchy, but vendors of the company I currently work for. So I was I was in charge of that division. So I was the main point of point guy with a lot of vendors. And so they already knew me from working with me at the company. So, you know, it’s an easy, easy way to go. Because you sort of skip a couple stages in the interview process. They’ve already seen how you operate in the professional setting more than a piece of paper with your resume could ever tell them. And ultimately, that’s where I ended up getting a job was a company that worked with my other company. And that’s where I landed through all that all the network.

Lisa Lewis Miller  29:09  

It’s so smart. It’s so strategic. And again, I love that it came from the happy accident of starting the podcast. Yeah, that there were all of these additional levels of skills and capabilities and relationships that you were able to naturally build over the course of a couple years just by following something and doing something that was fun for you and that you cared about that it didn’t have to be a really artificial, arduous process of like, Oh, now I have to make a resume from or not a resume. Now I have to tell my story from scratch. I have to build a network from scratch. That by giving yourself permission to follow your interests. Let it be playful, that’d be fine. Let it be easy. You naturally built an army of people who could advocate for you could champion you who could open doors for you all kinds of fabulous things.

Myles Biggs  29:59  

Yeah. Again, I never started with that intention. But it is great how it worked out, though.

Lisa Lewis Miller  30:06  

So, tell me a little bit more about how the podcast has evolved over the years because I imagine when you first started the podcast, you may not have been thinking at that moment in time. I’m gonna have a TEDx Talk. I’m gonna have a book.

Myles Biggs  30:21  

No, not at all. Though, really, I didn’t have any intention with the podcast, other than the small milestones, I said to myself, I said, when I first started, you know, I’m gonna make 25 episodes, and I got to 25. And like, how do they get to 50? Then I got the 50 and 100. Ruby, pretty cool, you know, and I just kept like, moving the yard, your yard markers on myself. And so over the course of it, in the podcast, I met a lot of really cool people, I joined a couple online mastermind communities. And so the podcast is really been like a gateway drug in way of what you can do online. People you can meet it connections, even board. And so podcasts led to the mastermind communities, in the mastermind communities, I found other podcast guests, but then people would give you feedback, you don’t always get you know, you do a podcast, you put it out there. It’s not like it’s a two way conversation all the time with the people that are listening to your show. But in these communities, people give me feedback, and they give me ideas. And somebody said, Hey, have you ever thought about your podcast as qualitative research for a book. And I hadn’t, until they said that, and then I couldn’t get it out of my head. So that’s a that’s to say to all the podcasts now, like, everything you’re doing all the advice, you’re gathering from folks and their stories, you can compile these stories, you know, supplement it with your own stories, and what you’ve learned from collecting these stories. And that’s a book you can self publish on Amazon. And it’s tedious. But it’s a lot easier than people thing, once you break it down into small pieces and jump into it. And so that’s what I did with the book. And similar to how I started podcast, and listen to podcasts, and said, Let me try that. You know, at some point, like most people, I got on the TED Talk rabbit hole, or just watching a lot of different TED Talks. And I was thinking to myself, man, I don’t think we have an event like that my area, I should see what it would take to start a TEDx event in my area, just like bring this more people need this kind of stuff. So my research of figuring out how to start this event, I found out there was one that I just didn’t know about an hour an hour away from me. And the day I found their page, they was the last day they were accepting speaker applications. And the theme of the event fit perfectly with this outline, I’d started for the book, I was writing based off stories, my podcast. And so I said, Well, what is there to lose? At the very least, I can start a conversation with these people to organize this event and figure out what that could be like how I could get involved. And so I filled out the application to be a speaker, again, these things that kind of scary that before I gave me a chance to get afraid or second guess it, I just dove in and fill that out. I didn’t even save what I applied for. So when I heard back that, hey, we’d like you to audition for, you know, first speaker slot, I had to ask them to send me what I had said in the applications, I just typed real quick and hit Apply. So sometimes you got to move not that quick. But so then I got it. And then I had to give a five minute version of speech in front of a panel of about eight judges. And then there was selected to be one of I think seven or eight that gave a 15 minute version of my talk. And so again, it was just sort of a natural evolution for all of it, and just taking sort of queues and small doors that crack open that people sort of offered to you. And then just running with it full steam, and it made it fun, it added a new challenge. And after so long doing the same thing over and over again on the podcast. It’s kind of like this is it. Like we said earlier, this is all there is. So adding these different layers of a TED talk, writing a book helped me stay engaged and excited about it. And then also it helps my pedigree if you will, it helps me get higher and higher caliber guests for people that I want to interview so I can challenge myself with the type of person I’m interviewing and those conversations I’m having now that I’ve got, you know, Ted speaker and author after my name and additional podcasts, those that helps me cut through the noise and I’m approaching, you know, celebrities, right online to try to get him to be on my podcast. So yeah, I’ll stop rambling.

Lisa Lewis Miller  34:32  

Well, I think that that just thinking about what the natural extensions are of something you’re already doing already liking and listening to the advice of the feedback that you’re getting from the people around you. And soliciting that is a huge piece of anybody successful process when it comes to building something, say that you had sought out to be a full time podcaster you know, those would be perfect steps to be taking, say that you purely thought to make the transition into the digital marketing role, those would be great steps to be taking. So I hope anybody who’s listening is taking notes on that this is just a process that you’re following. And it’s rinse and repeat. It’s replicable in a bunch of different industries or to help solve a bunch of different career related problems. And that, once you take the steps in the process, the doors that open on the other side of it are almost bigger or, or more full of possibilities than you could imagine when you’re in it in the day to day.

Myles Biggs  35:31  

Yeah, I think it’s important to that’s what I did the TED talk in the books about is that so much of it is invisible. You know, I call it unseen work. Nobody sees the three years of me staying up till 2am, editing podcasts and creating content, and then going to work the next day, they just see, oh, cool, he’s on this list of top podcasts, right? And, and they make a certain assumptions that it must be easier to happen, like the snap of my fingers, right? They see me give the TED Talk, they don’t see me practicing for a year, while I’m walking my dog just talking to myself, like a crazy person practicing my speech, right, or, you know, writing every single day for half an hour, over six to eight months to write that book. They just see the finished products. And so I think a lot of people, you see somebody else do it. And you see it look so effortless, that you expect it to be effortless when you start yourself. And it’s the opposite. It’s some of the hardest things I’ve ever done, have been stand up on the in the TED red circle and publish a book and really hard, and it took a long time. But that’s what makes it so fulfilling. And so a lot of people start and stop because it’s hard to hit that wall. But that’s, that’s where you can stop when it gets hard when it gets scary, you have to just recognize that you have to do all that unseen work so that when you are seen, you have something to show for it.

Lisa Lewis Miller  36:49  

And I think one of the paradoxes of the way that motivation works is that a lot of us are motivated by learning and growth and challenge and stretching ourselves. And at the same time, a lot of times that primal brain will jump in and say, Oh, boy, you just tried something that you’re not immediately successful at, therefore, this is dangerous. Therefore, this is a problem, therefore, you Abort mission, turn back. And it’s the willingness to sort of Tango with that discomfort and the fear and lean into it and keep stretching and pushing yourself. That can be so satisfying. On the other side, because if the fear voice wins, right, if the amygdala activation shuts down, your action steps, you your creativity, and your motivation, and your ambition can start to atrophy. Because it feels like there’s no safe outlet for it. There’s no safe direction to channel it. So being willing to be gentle, and also firm with yourself when it comes to trying something new and giving yourself permission to to dip your pinky toe in the water, right a dip, do toes in the water and just keep trying. Yeah, can lead to way outsized results, even if it’s in that unseen season?

Myles Biggs  38:08  

Yeah, I think it’s, we’ll talk about success. It’s creating your own definition for success. Like you don’t have immediate success in what you’re doing. Well, says who, right? It’s like, Where is that idea of success coming from? Is it from your buddy who’s never done that thing you’re doing saying if you’re not good at it, but he has nothing to speak of. And so that’s what I’ve tried to do is create my own milestones. And when I hit this, I’ll be happy. And then when I hit that, you know, pick a new stretch guest somebody that I’d love to interview that seems like way off in the distance. But now I’m striving to be the type of podcast type of interviewer that is worthy of interviewing that person. Things like that, that you have to create those own little milestones and little ones, not these huge ones, small ones that you can actually reach so that you keep going, you don’t feel like you’ve been doing it for years and years and have nothing to show for.

Lisa Lewis Miller  38:56  

Love that. Well, miles if somebody had been listening to this, and they’ve been loving hearing more about your journey, and now they’re really intrigued about the 200 plus episodes of your podcast. Where do they learn more about you, your book, your TEDx?

Myles Biggs  39:10  

Sure, you can find all of that. On my website. It is mylesbiggs.com. So pretty easy. My name is Myles with a y.. The TED Talks up there. It’s the link into the podcast is off there where you can search, relish the journey wherever you listen to podcasts and find the show there as well. Those are the two main spots.

Lisa Lewis Miller  39:33  

Lovely. And we will have all of those things in the show notes from today too. So go check those out to get links to all the miles. Goodness, you want both. Thank you. But miles thank you so much for coming on the show for sharing about the journey and the process and how the transitions gone for you too. I imagine that a lot of people are going to walk away from this episode feeling like now that they’ve seen it. It feels easier to be it It feels easier to do it.

Myles Biggs  39:59  

Yeah. There’s no there’s no greater compliment than being able to help somebody get off the couch. Metaphorically, right and just start. Because once you just start and keep going, then you can be the one being interviewed by least on his podcast. Just this just takes that consistent effort. It’s all

Lisa Lewis Miller  40:16  

so true. Oh, thank you again for coming, Myles.

Myles Biggs  40:19  

Yeah, happy to be here. Thank you.

Lisa Lewis Miller  40:27  

And that’s a wrap. Let us know what you thought about today’s episode. leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Because not only can your stars and words help us find great guests and topics to feature on future episodes. Your input also helps other people find the resources they need to discover the work that lights them up. And make sure to check out my book Career Clarity Show finally find the work that fits your values and lifestyle. For the link to order it go to getCareerClarity.com/book. And don’t forget to get your other tools resources and helpful goodies at get Career Clarity.com/podcast. Thanks again for joining us for the Career Clarity Show today. And remember, if you don’t love your work, we should talk because life is too short to be doing work that doesn’t light you up. Talk to you next time.

About the Author Lisa Lewis

Lisa is a career change coach helping individuals feeling stuck to find work that fits. She helps people clarify who they are, what they want most, and what a great job for them looks like so they can make their transition as easily as possible. Lisa completed coaching training in Jenny Blake’s Pivot Method, Danielle LaPorte’s Fire Starter Sessions, Kate Swoboda's Courageous Living Coaching Certification, and the World Coaches Institute. In addition to that, she apprenticed with the top career coaches in the country so she can do the best possible work with — and for — you. She's helped more than 500 individuals move into more fulfilling, yummy careers and would be honored to get to serve you next!

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